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British holidaymakers say that they have been abandoned starving on a hurricane-hit island as evacuation planes leave half empty because they have no permission to take "refugees" from the UK.

Anger is growing over the "disgraceful" Government response to the disaster as families of those on one of the worst hit islands say there has been no information and no help despite the growing lawlessness and the fact they are running out of their last scraps of food and water.

Ross and Lesley McEwan, both in their early 60s, have been queuing up at the airport in the baking sunshine every day as instructed by the authorities on St Maarten, but after 14 hours they are told that "nobody wants to take us".

The couple, from Cambourne in Cambridgeshire, had been on holiday on the Dutch part of island, the northern half of which is the French territory St Martin.

Kirsty Shephard, their daughter, said: "There is no electricity, no running water, no toilets and very limited food and water. They were told initially there was enough for three days and now we are on day five.

"They are just trying to get off the island and queue at the airport, where there is very little shelter, from 5.30am till 8pm."

Commercial flights have been unable to land but there was a glimmer of hope on Sunday when they are told that there would be space for them on a French evacuation flight.

The French Army have secured access to the airport at St MartinCredit:
Getty

However, Ms Shephard received a message from her mother telling her: "French flew with three quarter empty plane because they couldn't get permission for 'refugees'. Back to resort."

Mrs McEwan revealed that a riot had broken out at the airport as tempers frayed.

Ms Shephard said: "They keep being told that the UK Foreign Office has not made contact with anyone on the island and so there is no plan to evacuate British people. The French plane said that they did not have permission to take British citizens."

A French embassy spokesperson denied that French rescue planes had refused to take British holiday makers.

"Since the events first occurred, the French state took charge, as a matter of priority, of evacuating the most vulnerable people, especially the sick, who couldn’t be cared for on the ground in hospitals in St Martin and St Barthélemy," the spokesperson said.

"There was no discrimination based on nationality. All of the other tourists are now progressively being transferred."

The Dutch, French, American and Canadian citizens have been evacuated, those on the ground say, but there are around 100 Europeans - made up of about 20 British people as well as German and Italian citizens - who are stranded.

Mother-of-two Amy Brown, 36, an HR manager from Burghfield in Berkshire, is also trapped on St Maarten after she went to visit friends and was unable to get a flight or boat off the island when she heard news of the Hurricane Irma's course.

Her father, Geoffrey Scott-Baker, said: "They are just trying to survive. They are being told to go to the airport each day but the Dutch and the French are just looking after their own, if you have got the wrong passport then you don't fly.

"The scale of this is that it would take just one passenger jet, just a plane that could carry up to 150 people, to get them all out. They just need to get to Antigua which is a 30-minute flight, we are not asking big favours like getting them back to Europe."

"The BVI is only an hour's flight away, if the problem is so big how come other countries are managing it?

"It is an unbelievable, idiotic situation that is totally unacceptable.

"She is frightened, they are getting very little water and only one protein bar a day as food.

"They are starving and dehydrated, there is very little shelter at the airport so they are sunburnt.

"Their health is deteriorating and there is shooting and looting going on. If any of them have health problems then the likelihood is they will be going home in a box.

"We are looking after the grandchildren and they are saying 'when is mummy coming home?' What am I supposed to tell them?"

Ms Shepherd echoed his calls, saying: "It just seems to be simple - the Foreign Office just need to speak to someone and tell them we need to get them off the island. They have been abandoned on the island.

"The main response seems to be to the British overseas territory but they have got no information and no plan for what to do for British citizens on other islands. "

Ms Shepherd added that when she tried to contact the FCO she was told to check the website for updates, of which there are none, and the disaster evacuation line was a call centre with scripts.

"There is nothing that they can do, some of them are almost in tears because they can't do anything," she said.

He said: "In St Maarten, which is Dutch let's not forget, we have been evacuating people according to their medical need and some British nationals actually have been evacuated. We are in constant contact with the Dutch or the French. We really don't want more people going on to the island as it is a disaster zone so it is really up to them to get them off.

"We are doing everything we can to help British nationals but there are half a million of them affected."

An FCO spokesman said: “We have been in regular contact with the Dutch and the Americans since the onset of this crisis to co-ordinate our response and help for all those affected.

"We understand that evacuation is based on individual need, rather than nationality, with the most vulnerable prioritised. It is not due to the lack of an arrangement. Indeed a number of British citizens have been evacuated from the island by the US.

“We are in touch with British nationals on St Maarten and have advised them to follow the local advice on the ground. While we are unable to get a consular team to Saint Maarten, we have deployed staff to Curacao to help British nationals evacuated there from Saint Maarten.”